College Athletes and Painful Joints

I was asked to teach a Julstro self-treatment clinic to the sprinting team at NC State (in Raleigh) and it was exactly what I’ve been wanting to do for years – teach a college sporting team how to release the spasms that cause them pain and injury.

As I developed the Julstro self-treatment techniques I had the good fortune to have a lot of dedicated athletes who gave me lots of reasons to find solutions. Most of my clients at that time were endurance athletes and they stressed their bodies more than any group I’d ever treated. In fact, it was this group of athletes that led me to writing The Pain-Free Triathlete.

What a challenging time that was! I remember a cyclist once calling me to say he was 40 miles from home and his hip was hurting so badly that he could barely ride. All he had with him was a bottle of water and his phone, so I had him just rest while I laid down on the floor and figured out what to do with just a bottle of water! After I worked out the self-treatment I called him back and told him what to do, and he was able to release enough tension that he was back on the road — coming home as quickly as he could. He came to my office and we totally released the tight muscles (that was the beginning of the Julstro Protocol), and it was a fulfilling time for me.

As I started to work on the college-age children of my clients, I realized that these young men and women would play even if injured because they are afraid of being put off the team and losing their scholarships. I worked with an 18 YO young man who had a scholarship to play football and it was his first year at school. This athlete-student had a serious pain in his knee, causing it to not only hurt, but to feel unstable. His father had to practically drag him home for treatment because he would be missing a game, but he was so glad afterward that I ended up seeing a few of his other teammates. Fortunately it was only his quadriceps and iliopsoas muscles that were causing the problem (another step in the development of the Julstro Protocol), and he went back to college knowing how to release the muscles himself.

If you know a coach who is open to having me come to teach his/her team, please let me know. It’s so important to prevent these injuries as they don’t only affect the athlete during the college years, but for the remainder of their lives!